Police: Woman`s Kids Stole To Get Her Drugs

FT. LAUDERDALE — A Ft. Lauderdale woman has been accused of using her 7-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son to burglarize homes for items to trade for crack cocaine.

Bernice German, 29, used the daughter as the lookout and had her son crawl through windows to help carry out the loot, Ft. Lauderdale police said. And while the children ate ice cream and goodies taken from the homes, German bartered other stolen items to feed her crack cocaine habit, police and her family said.

``We just tried to get help for us to get food,`` a girl who identified herself as German`s daughter said last week. The girl said she didn`t like to steal ``because it was bad.``

After police arrested German on charges of burglary and larceny on Wednesday, the children were released to their grandmother`s care.

When German was arrested, she was on probation after being imprisoned for grand theft and two counts of burglary, police said. Police are trying to link her with more burglaries in the northwest Ft. Lauderdale area, Detective Patricia Treutle said. Treutle declined to discuss whether German would be charged for using her children to commit crimes.

The state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services has been asked to look into the care of the children while German remains jailed in lieu of $6,000 bail.

German`s niece, Sarah German, 19, who lives with the family, described the children as typical youngsters who were led astray by their cocaine-using mother.

The girl, who starts 1st grade in a few weeks, likes to play with dolls, and the boy, who will soon start 2nd grade, plays kickball, Sarah German said. When Bernice German was not high on crack cocaine, she would take her two children to the beach, the movies or a park, Sarah German said.

But about twice a week, the mother took her children on walks to nearby homes to steal, Sarah German said.

Tuesday morning, Bernice German and the children went to a home where the mother and son stuffed clothing, chicken parts and other food into plastic bags, the report said.

A neighbor saw the girl as she stood outside a kitchen window, taking filled bags as they were handed out to her, the report said.

``We left (the bags) there because we were going to get caught,`` the girl said Thursday.

The family scaled a fence behind the house and ran, the report said. Police officers stopped them but released them after learning where they could be found later, the report said.